Proposal targets underage parties

Hearing to weigh crimes for adults who aid drinking

Jan. 22, 2013

Written by

Corey Brown

Joyce Glynn

Larry Lucas

A bill targeting the adults who host underage drinking parties will have a hearing in the Legislature this week.

Senate Bill 94 would punish a “social host” with up to a year in jail for allowing people younger than 18 to drink. It would be a class 2 misdemeanor to allow people ages 18 to 20 to drink.

Those who try to stop the drinking would not be liable under the proposal’s language.

South Dakota law is not clear enough on the criminal liability for adults who allow young people to drink, supporters argue, and the new bill would close a loophole regarding those who know there is alcohol but do nothing. Some legislators have concerns about broadening the scope of responsibility and wonder whether a new law is needed.

Those who host drinking parties already can be charged criminally.

Senate Bill 94 will have its first hearing Wednesday, a week-and-a-half before the trial begins for a former Harrisburg School Board president and her husband, who are suspected of allowing alcohol at a graduation party last May.

Michelle and Bryan Schirado face charges of contributing to a child in need of supervision and keeping or maintaining a place for the violation of beverage laws.

The Schirados have pleaded not guilty. Their jury trial is set to begin in February.

Some say prosecutors need more options to hold adults who host parties accountable.

Contributing to a child in need of supervision requires proof that the person charged, purchased or furnished the alcohol.

Sen. Larry Lucas, D-Mission, said that leaves out those who turn the other way when teens bring their own alcohol.

“That’s where the loophole exists,” he said.

The charge of maintaining a place for the violation of beverage laws requires that a person allowed alcohol to be used in violation of the law.

If passed, however, supporter Joyce Glynn said it will clarify existing laws and send a strong message to those who feel that hosting parties is safe.

“We see the law as ambiguous,” said Glynn, who lost her son in 2006 when he rolled his car on the way home from a drinking party that was supposed to be supervised. “A lot of people think (maintaining) only applies to bars.”

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Glynn’s story has been featured in ad campaigns in the past, and she hopes the situation will bring about a change in the law.

“We thought we had all the bases covered. We had people who were going to be there supervising,” Glynn said. “We thought he’d come home sober the next afternoon.”

Sen. Corey Brown, R-Gettysburg, has concerns about the bill, however. For one thing, there is no definition of a “social host.”

“Is that someone who owns the property? Someone who rents the property?” Brown asked.

He also wonders about language in the bill referring to the idea that the social host “knew or should have known” that alcohol would be consumed illegally. Would a person who rents a hall for a wedding be liable for the consumption of alcohol by minors?

“It’s a shift in philosophy,” Brown said. “Typically, we put the responsibility for these types of things on the consumer (of the contraband).”

Sen. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, said he’s received a lot of feedback from supporters of the bill. Even so, he said there are important questions to be answered Wednesday during the bill’s hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee..

“I understand where they’re trying to go, but I have some concerns about the verbiage that we’re going to have to deal with,” Rhoden said.